ISON has deadly close encounter with sun

Nov. 28 - A comet scientists were hoping would eventually be visible to the naked eye, is believed to have been vaporized after flying too close to the sun. Deborah Gembara reports.

▲ Hide Transcript

▶ View Transcript

ISON --- we hardly knew you. The comet scientists hoped would light up the sky with its brilliant tail may have passed too close to the sun.
SOUNDBITE: Astrophysicist Karl Battams saying:
"It's some pretty awesome stuff. We haven't seen anything like this before. I do suspect that the comet has broken up and has died but ISON has surprised us a lot over the past few months so let's at least give it a couple more hours before we start writing the obituary."
The comet, which was moving faster than 217 miles per second as it approached the sun, is believed to have been vaporized.
What isn't clear at this point is whether the heat destroyed the entire comet.
The one thing scientist Do know about ISON is that it is no ordinary comet.
SOUNDBITE: Astrophysicist Karl Battams saying:
"ISON is just weird. It has behaved unpredictably at times with, when it's done something strange, we've spent some time scratching our heads, figuring out ok, what's it doing, and then when we think we know what it's doing, and we think we can predict what it's then going to do, it goes and does something different."
If in fact, any of ISON did survive the close encounter, it should be visible to the naked eye in the next week or so.

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: